JasonM

Really insane that Merc has driven nearly double the amount of miles compared to the next team. Even though the info matters little, it shows that the Merc engine is something special.

A PSA about testing towards anyone who might be interested in F1 or have a casual interest in the sport... The times and laps posted by all drivers have no meaning unless you're part of the team of which those drivers race for... Every single team and driver has a different strategy and different testing points all during the day, and nobody is actively competing against each other, not team to team or driver to driver. Rosberg can be testing part-longevity whilst Hamilton can just as easily be testing fuel efficiency, and whatever else.

So whilst it's fun to follow testing and development, don't take too much stock in the times set by the drivers, since none are actually driving in race/quali-trim.

That is all, continue enjoying F1!

33 minutes ago, Benkid Nada said:

Finn Jones, who played Loras Tyrell in Game of Thrones, has been cast ad Iron Fist. I kind of like that. 

Unconventional choice, but I'm intrigued and at this point I have full faith in Marvel's casting.

Elektra, Punisher, the Hand, Gang Wars, The Yakuza 2.0, Stick!

This is already looking to blow all previous Marvel series out of the water, and we've only seen trailers!

The only thing i'm not thrilled by is the obligatory 'hero guilt trips' that are used in every hero series, and this time Foggy is the victim to be carrying that cross...

Right now i'm so very mild towards the new event Marvel's starting with Avengers Standoff, and then probably rolling that right into Civil War 2.0

We've just had Secret Wars and they couldn't even release that in a timely manner before they #1'd every series. And now most of the new imprints are barely at #6 and we're already getting two brand new events. I get that they're trying to capitalize off of the films right now, but right now is not the right moment to come with new events, and the fans are (rightfully) shitting on those announcements.

Marvel has always had a hard-on for crossover events, but it's getting real silly.

41 minutes ago, Chris2K said:

Ted Kravitz on his Notebook was giving Eric Bouillier a hard time last night, essentially because they've been fiddling around with qualifying and not the aerodynamics that are preventing the cars from racing each other properly at a close distance.

I agree with him to a point, but his main argument was "what do the racing purists want?" which is completely meaningless in this situation. The racing purists are going to watch regardless of what the qualifying regulations are, what the FIA and Team Bosses are trying to do is get the people who are on the fence or even those that don't like the sport to start watching. any changes that need to be made (particularly ones that don't involve the cars themselves) have to be aimed at growing a new audience, not satisfying the people already watching.

Team Bosses are doing whatever they can do to keep their teams ahead of the rest, and ensure they and their sponsors get as much success as possible.
If F1 was more interested in getting fence-fans and new-fans into the sport, they can do a whole lot more than just give Qualification a new hat and go 'We changed it gais!'.

F1 is arguably the least fan/social-media focused racing class (sport) in the world right now. Competitions like WRC, WEC, and even smaller ones like FE are right on top of being involved in social media and also bringing the racing to the fans as much as possible... F1 (FOM is the main culprit) keeps all the interesting bits away from anyone who might be mildly interested in the sport, and forces people that want to watch to jump through hoops to be able to watch the sport (pay-walls everywhere). The website is a joke, and if you want to watch old stuff you're pretty much fucked in the A.

Look at how they treated BBC and pretty much forced them into jumping out of the game because they were being gouged with the price, even to a point where they could only show half of the races during the season. Now C4 is in that same problem. Over here in The Netherlands F1 was behind apay-wall for years, and only in the past six months this has changed to the race weekends being on a free channel on cable TV. And this is the same for a lot of the nations that have some form of interest in F1.

FOM wants F1 to be exclusive, F1 needs to be a 'premium sport' behind pay-walls so they can make billions on TV Rights alone. At the same time they complain that there are fewer sponsors than ever dealing with F1 teams, because whilst FOM and F1 has seen profits balloon, the general exposure and fewer-figures have been going down more and more.

If they truly wanted to make the sport interesting for new fans, they wouldn't have started a new aero-era for 2017, they wouldn't have pushed through a half-assed qualifying system either.

Team bosses are going to act in the best interests of their teams, always, and there's nobody can claim otherwise. Whether you're with Force India, Mercedes F1, or Ferrari.

As simple as it is, these new quali rules are going to piss off purists, and confuse the hell out of casuals on top of that. Teams are still going to sit in their garages until the last moment, and teams like Mercedes will still put on one or two lap times because they're fast enough to survive until Q3. Cars aren't suddenly going to get slower or faster with these new quali rules, the only thing that's potentially happening is teams getting a lucky or unlucky break when they get caught out. And the first 4 or so cars are going to be the same ones because like I said, cars won't suddenly be slower/faster just because there are new quali rules.

They need to stop trying to distract people with a shiny new thing, and actually create meaningful and lasting changes that helps the sport thrive.

[/rant]

1 minute ago, Adam said:

I much preferred the old one lap shoot-out, where they'd go out and do a run in reverse order of the previous race result (I think) and the fastest time won.

I liked that style, but it was severely hampered by the weather conditions. If the session started (or finished) in wet conditions, anyone caught on wets was pretty much boned for quali. Sure, it added the unpredictability that a Schumi could end up low on the grid because of the weather acting up, but generally it pissed people off more than it excited. Because people in the wet had no chance to make up for it the moment the track started to dry up.

Right now I feel the change is alright I guess, but it does not fix the problems that the sport is having. That is, 50% downforce loss by being stuck behind the next guy ahead of you, meaning overtaking is mostly reserved for DRS-straights and straight up faster cars (and the occassional Verstappen Banzai act.) And this quali system won't fix those problems at all.

The biggest problem right now is that teams should not have a say in what rules are made. They should be there to add their suggestions, and be able to shape the system to the wants/needs of their outfit, but they should not be having a final say in the matter, that should be reserved to the FIA and an impartial committee that aims for the betterment of the sport, not the betterment of teams.

The only way the sport can really grow is if they take the power to legislate away from the teams, but that won't happen, because there are three teams that will make sure it doesn't happen. (Ferrari, Merc, McLaren) - Didn't add Red Bull because they'd thrive in a less strict system.

1 hour ago, GhostMachine said:

JBTDZ-Z03K9-3EDRI - Whoever grabs it, enjoy.

I was shocked it wasn't 'Shower with your Dad Simulator'

8 minutes ago, Benji said:

Did something contravertial happen in episode seven of this season of AoS? The episode recording is only 50 mins when it's usually 60, but nothing seemed to be missing.

Nothing that I remember, the episode says it's 41 minutes for me without ads, which is the average run-time of episodes.

14 hours ago, GoGo Yubari said:

I'm liking it but not neaaaaaaarly enough to pay $60. This is a $30 game tops.

Well, to be honest there are but a few games i'd pay 60 bucks for nowadays.

The only one that comes to mind is Witcher 3, which was a breathtaking timesink that truly left me feeling sad for over a week when I finished it and realized that was it (until Hearts of Stone came out, and I lost even more hours!)

Apart from Witcher 3, the last time I spent full price on a video game was GTA5 for PS3 and Battlefield 3 in 2011.

On 19-2-2016 at 23:14, Robsturgh said:

Just completed my first run. The destructible environments are excellent, and later on just fucking lobbing explosives everywhere creates a spectacle where just everything is fucking trashed and it looks amazing.

Grenadiers are just brilliant in XCom2. With the nade launcher they can just wreak havoc from safe areas, and flashbangs are pretty sweet too to mess up groups.

1 hour ago, Quom said:

Charlie V is fucking terrible. Like beyond redemption terrible. 

I was completely done after he grabbed Westbrook by the throat a few months back, showing he's not just a shit player, but just generally a shithead.

The Manor nose is really... weird, compared to all the fancy high tech noses other teams are rocking now. (especially compared to the 'nose' of Force India). I do love the colour though, smart move from Manor to have a more 'standout' colour on the grid that will no doubt catch the eyes of people watching.

Also I was skeptical about the Red Bull livery, but having seen it on the track in day lighting it looks amazing.

6 minutes ago, michgcs said:

Maybe "a lot" was a bit much, but I'd say that Villanueva's been a serviceable bench guy for stretches this season, especially after almost finding himself out of the league a few years ago.

Personally he's 'serviceable' purely because we don't have anyone else for his position right now. Which will probably change now that David Lee is reportedly on his way to Dallas after being cut by the Celts.

Charlie V has been absolutely atrocious this year, and he's been a waste of minutes. Carlisle gives him minutes in the hopes he starts shooting 35% or better from three, but it's just not happening. Dude's a gigantic offensive and defensive liability, and he's got no place on a playoff bound team.

7 minutes ago, michgcs said:

Well, it's done a lot for Charlie Villanueva so far...

Charlie V, our 3pt expert! At 26%

Haas' livery is all over the place and a bit of a mess...

David Lee and Andrea Bargnani got put on waivers, Both are rumoured to sign with Dallas on the exception.

Come to the Mavericks, where we turn back the clock on broken bodies!

Waller as a whole I just can't buy into that she's a heartless anything-goes leader of a shady goverment organization that revels in torture and doing whatever it takes for the greater good. She just has zero 'gravitas' in her performance and she just does nothing for me as a viewer. She just lacks any conviction in her acting which means every scene she's in falls just flat on it's face and never really conveys the seriousness of what's going on. E.g. Flashback-Ollie failing to prevent a terrorist attack

10 hours ago, GoGo Yubari said:

Yeah, watching them out of sequence like that is always going to be a problem. I sort of view early Arrow as being the necessary fledgling steps towards a world with superheroes; of course he would start out as a grimdark vigilante type, of course the early villains would mostly be mobsters and mercenaries, but that doesn't mean it's not sort of a slog.

(Season 3 is its own, different type of failure, mind.)

I'm currently slogging through season 3 of Arrow, and my biggest problem is that the main story DRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGS along for ages without any sort of resolution, and at the same time it throws even more melodramatic shit on top of that plot just to make sure that it wasn't obvious enough that everyone is having feels.

Then they go with red herrings here and there to prolong it even longer, and you pretty much get excited when the cross-over happens because it's absolutely refreshing to see them step away from the angsty shit for a moment.

The last episode i've seen is 'The Climb' with the 'cliffhanger' that isn't really a cliffhanger since it doesn't take a genius to know where the plot will go. But right now i'm already hoping that there's some sort of light at the end of this season's tunnel of averageness. (Also, Ray Palmer and the Felicity storyline is a massive poochie)

I compare it to the post-lucifer seasons of Supernatural, where they were too busy devoting an entire season to somehow writing an even bigger opponent than the anti-christ himself, and at the same time returning back to the angsty 'wah wah, I want a normal life' crap that nobody wanted before.

It's just very hard as a viewer to be motivated to continue. Hopefully Arrow Season 4 is more like Season 2 rather than 3, I hope?

2 hours ago, Lineker said:

Seriously, what does Alex Rossi have to do to get a permanent race seat  

I hope for Alex that he can get a test seat at Haas, that'd be great for both parties as they can keep a talented American under their wing and improve their home popularity to boot. Then Alex Rossi can try to win GP2 this year. It's gonna be hard to get a race seat in this current grid though, only Haryanto and the two Sauber drivers are the ones i'd replace right now.

A very deep grid in the coming season, and with Manor getting Merc engines, and Haas having Ferrari engines, the backmarkers might be crazy competitive too this year.

On 15-2-2016 at 20:17, KevinStorm said:

I may try that.  Last few times I've played I've been a lowly count, but that generally involves just sitting there waiting for things to happen.  Maybe I'll give it a shot as a larger demense. 

As a Norse you can get very far in very little time with a count, mainly due to the ambitions the Norse get that give lots of claims and also bigger armies through adventurers and whatnot.

Even if you sit around you can get lucky with one of your kids deciding to conquer a piece of England for himself or something like that.

The only thing I feel looks cheap is the lack of a stroek around 'Red Bull', if there's anything that Photoshop has taught me is that you always gotta put a stroke around text to make it pop. It's like graphics design 101.

21 hours ago, Maxx said:

Such a great choice to cast Bernthal.  

I had my doubts with Bernthal playing The Punisher, but even from that trailer it was obvious that he brings a real weight to the role that goes further than just some anti-hero. Punisher as a whole needs to straddle the line between 'hero' and just mindless killer, and I think that Bernthal has just that look of craziness (as shown in TWD too) that he can pull that off perfectly where the viewer kinda is behind him, but then again isn't.

After all, as the viewer you need to be supporting Matt's 'justice' idea, that's why it's his series. And Punisher's 'kill them all, regardless of collateral' is something you kinda understand, but you can't condone because he's a madman on a mission to kill every crook regardless of who he brings down with them.

But yeah, that trailer has me hype for Daredevil, and I hope it can be just as good as the first series which had one of the best bad-guy's in the MCU.

7 hours ago, damshow said:

Golden State is like Washington where the city is pretty big but the surrounding area (each have multiple cities an hour or less away) makes for a potentially huge market. Warriors were an afterthought and the Wizards mostly are here because of lack of success. People will jump on board as soon as the team gets good, but they'll also quickly jump off due to having multiple teams both pro and college to cheer for. Smaller markets don't have that same issue because the fans are always going to be there since the team is the only one in town. It's why Blazers fans are so highly-regarded.

Oddly enough Dallas is the exception to the rule, since they had a rabid fanbase even in the few dud years post-title win. Mavericks are one of those teams that draw a crowd regardless if they're in playoff contention or not.

31 minutes ago, Chris2K said:

That was my biggest annoyance, that and whoever it was who said they didn't know any Denver Nuggets players because they didn't watch bad teams. It may have been Kevin Hart, but if it was one of the other guys then why should I listen to their analysis on anything?

 

They did have a point about Barton's entrance though, that was a lot of make-up application for ten seconds of dancing.

Shockingly enough it wasn't Kevin Hart, it was actually Charles Barkley that came up with that aneurism of a joke. It really made me scratch my head, why are you even a pundit on Inside the NBA if you only watch half the teams...